In the past I’ve had several items of Daiwa clothing and they’ve been good, really good. I was therefore looking forward to these since I needed a pair of fairly lightweight and waterproof over-trousers if only to keep the old legs warm in the late evenings when temperatures drop. The quality of them is superb and as well as the coated outer material they are also lined with another material and this will save you wearing away the coating on the outer fabric. Trust me, I know this to be true! This will therefore preserve the life of the trousers as well as making them more comfortable to wear. But, there’s the rub dear friends, for I shall never get to enjoy these trousers. I have a modest 39 inch waist and despite what some contributors to FM will tell you, my backside is not that exceptional either. I therefore ordered the XL size to begin with, the same as my Crag Hoppers, which are extremely comfortable, but I couldn’t even get the Wilderness as far as the crotch. I returned them and asked for the XXL size, my other Gore-Tex over-trousers are XXL and you could hold a dance in them, i.e.: lots of ballroom. The XXLs arrived and, yes, I can get them on, but only just. They are grossly uncomfortable and hardly reach the belt line of my existing trousers without causing me to speak falsetto. Something is seriously wrong with the sizing of these trousers. To bring them up to proper UK sizes they could do with between 2 and 4 inches adding to the waist and hips and a further 11/2 to 2 inches adding to the depth of the crotch. The length of the legs is about right, but they could use a further 1 inch to the width of the legs. So, I’m absolutely and completely disappointed. These XXL will perhaps fit someone with a 36″ waist who likes wearing hipsters and is relatively tall for their other dimensions. What a shame because the quality is so good. If you are interested, find a store and try them on first before parting with your money, but do not buy them mail order as I did. I can only imagine that Daiwa are losing a lot of sales because of this and my personal plea to Daiwa is, “please heed my remarks carefully and get these measurements corrected. Whichever ‘consultant’ you employ that has told you these are great, sack them and give me a job instead. I spent three years working in a gent’s outfitters so I know what I’m talking about and I do still want a pair of these that fit me! So, sorry for the poor rating, just 5 on the FM scale, because of sizing problems that has ruined a good product. I’ll come back and re-assess if they get the tailoring right, I promise. Rating: 5/10 |
